Electronic systems have been provided in many contexts and environments. The electronic systems receive electrical or physical inputs, and perform processing based on the received inputs. The electronic systems may be implemented in many different environments, including a vehicle, a home, a computing system, and the like.
Users have engaged with electronic systems in many different ways. Initially, mechanical devices were provided, such as knobs, switches, and the like. The mechanical device were either replaced or augmented with electronic devices, such as keyboards, mice, and the like. These devices, whether mechanical or electrical, often times are viewed as bulky and hard to interface with.
In recent times, non-contact interfaces have become more common. These include voice recognition, gaze tracking, head tracking, or the like. A sensor is provided that captures a voice/sound, or an image/video, and translates the captured information into a stimulus. However, many users still prefer to use their hands or appendages to interact with an interface.
Another recent phenomenon is the advent of touch screen technologies. These are displays or surfaces provided with electronic capabilities to detect a touch. Some example implementations are capacitive touch and resistive touch. However, these implementations suffer from a common human machine interface deficiency, the lack of haptics. Because a user is engaging a flat surface, the user may not know whether interaction with a specific command has occurred.
The above problem may be remedied with the employment of haptics, i.e. responses that are pressure or sound based that indicate a specific touch. However, these solutions may still never replicate the feeling of engaging with a physical electronic or mechanical device.